Z War : The Council Interviews
by zTiamaTz
Summary: In the aftermath of the zombie war, interviews of survivors were conducted. Those done with International Watchers Council have now been published.
1. Author's Notes

**Z War : The Council Interviews**

**Author: zTiamaTz**

**Email: WMullen 78 at Yahoo . com**

**Beta By: Starway Man**

**Description: In the aftermath of the zombie war, interviews of survivors were conducted. Those done with the International Watchers Council have now been published.**

**Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Angel the Series, along with the characters with their respective shows are owned by Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy.**

**Disclaimer 2: The Zombie Survival Guide is owned by Max Brooks and Three Rivers Press.**

**Disclaimer 3: World War Z is owned by Max Brooks, Three Rivers Press, and Paramount Pictures.**

**|O|O|**

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**

**|O|O|**

**I've seen a few of these World War Z interview stories in the past few years. Some were done better then others, but the one thing I noticed was that they were usually pretty short.**

**'Short' does not work well when dealing with zombies, whether it's fan fic, TV, movies or anything else. I'm going bigger here. The interviews will be long and in depth, I'm going to make sure they actually have relevance with the events in the book.**

**I'm not going to bang these out in regular intervals. If I have a good concept for a story with a particular character, I'll use it, regardless of if I like the character or not. I am hopeful that the ideas will keep coming though.**

**I have done everything I can to recreate the style of the book. Having finished the first chapter, I feel I've done a reasonably good job of making that happen. While it's not perfect, I am happy with it.  
**

**Please let me know what you think. I've never been one to ask for reviews, but considering I've just recently returned, I want to know I'm still doing things right...**

**|O|O|**


	2. Introduction

**Z : War The Council Interviews**

**Author: zTiamaTz**

**Email: WMullen 78 at Yahoo . com**

**Beta By: Starway Man**

**|O|O|**

**INTRODUCTION**

Having already printed World War Z in hardback, and proving the naysayers who said that its release was too soon after VA Day wrong, here we are with the paperback version. While you will find all the content from the original within, I wanted to add something special to this version.

Through the hard work of myself, my publisher, and the United Nations Post-War Commission, I have finally been able to add the accounts of those people who run or work for the much vaunted International Watchers Council. Please note that these interviews were carried out when the Commission report was originally being put together. At that time, however, those within the Council specifically requested that the interviews not be published along with the rest of the book.

The fact that they were fighting against this sort of thing long before the war broke out has given many influential people pause. I have found that many within the public seem indifferent to the matter, eager to just try and get back to some semblance of normal life. There is a vocal minority, however, who feel that the Council was at least partially to blame for the Solanum outbreak.

It is of course well known how the higher echelons of the Council have turned down practically all interview opportunities since the end of the war, due to this reason. The fact that I was able to convince so many surviving members of the Council to allow publication of the interviews, lets the public at large finally see the impact that the group had on the war.

It also puts into perspective just how many lives these people saved, and how many terrible sacrifices they made to help ensure it happened. And while I was confident with what was published originally, after I was done writing and editing the paperback version, I feel that this is the definitive story of World War Z.

As an author, one must aim to have nothing but the facts in his books, and that is what I have attempted to do here. There is a certain level of theory and conjecture where I felt it helped emphasize the salient points, but mostly this book deals with the proof and evidence at hand. The scientists who studied Solanum, ever since the outbreaks were known simply as 'African rabies', have stated repeatedly that this is a virus, and not in any way linked to the supernatural; thus, it is so reported in World War Z.

Now that I can finally come down off of my soapbox, I just want to finally add that I hope the interview accounts will be met with an open mind. Some people's opinions will never be changed, but I can only hope that these new additions to World War Z will open some eyes.

**|O|O|**

**END**


	3. Willow Rosenberg

**Z War: The Council Interviews**

**Author: zTiamaTz**

**Email: WMullen 78 at Yahoo . com**

**Beta By: Starway Man**

**A/N: Due to how the Doc Manager is set up, the spacing is not perfect here. Though still easily readable, it is still quite annoying. I have done what I can to correct it as much as possible.  
**

**|O|O|**

**SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL**

**[I arrive at the Maclay Learning Center earlier than expected.**  
**This being my first interview with anyone from the IWC has**** made me slightly nervous. The fact that the person I'll be ****speaking with today is none other than Willow Rosenberg** **makes me all the more so.**

**I'm quickly greeted by a smiling young woman who **  
**introduces herself as an executive assistant, and soon**  
**enough I find myself in Miss Rosenberg's office. If her**  
**appearance hadn't been so widely publicized throughout **  
**the world, I'd most likely be shocked.]**

It's okay, I'm used to it by now.

**_Excuse me?_**

The stares, the shocked expressions. **[Smiles warmly.]** All the people who come here to learn have the same reaction, initially. If I didn't have a thick skin, I wouldn't be able to accomplish what I have here.

**[According to various news reports, due to her use of **  
**magic against the zombies during the war, Miss**  
**Rosenberg's features have been drastically altered. Her**  
**eyes and hair are pure black, and her alabaster skin seems**  
**all the paler for it, with dark bluish-black veins visible**  
**across her face and neck.]**

**_Shall we begin?_**

Sure. And I can already guess what your first question is; why didn't we stop it from ever happening? The fact is we simply weren't prepared for what happened. After helping to set up the Council at various locations around the world, Kennedy - my girlfriend at the time - and I came to Rio just to relax for a while. When the term 'African rabies' started hitting the papers, we didn't even blink.¹ After all, 'bird flu' and 'swine flu' likewise made the headlines, and nothing major ever came out of them.

1. _Kennedy Fitzgerald, former reality star, and current star of the popular television show: 'Kennedy the Zombie Slayer'._

**_Are you still in contact with Miss Fitzgerald?_**

No. **[Her tone makes it clear she has no intention of discussing the subject further. After I nod my assent, she continues.]**Anyway, I was a little worried because Xander was in Africa...

**_Just to clarify, by that statement do you mean Alexander Harris?_**

Yeah, he's the best friend a girl, or a witch, could ever have. You'll be talking to him soon, so you can ask him how things in Africa were. I'd rather not get into that.

**_I'm sorry. Please, continue._**

Okay, it's just you have to understand - we were all basically on vacation. After seven years of helping Buffy out in Sunnydale, and another year helping to set up a worldwide organization, I just wanted to take it easy for awhile. Sure, Kennedy would occasionally hook up with the local slayer contingent and go on patrol with them, but mostly it was us just hanging out on the beach.

The first time we got an inkling that something wasn't right, was when that clinic thing happened.² But it was all just street rumor, it never made the conventional press and it just didn't seem important enough at the time to do any real research into it. In hindsight, that was a big error on my part, I will admit.

2. _This is widely believed to be the first incidence of Solanum infection in South America._

By the time we realized just how wide the outbreak was, we were fighting for our lives on the streets of Brazil. I remember how the school lost two girls because of bites the first day. Slayers...well _most_slayers, I'm sure you know how slayers are used to fighting hand-to-hand, with the occasional weapon like a crossbow thrown in. That's what they're made for.

How could we have known that a tiny scratch from a tooth or a nail could be so deadly? Slayers are pretty much built for battle; the thinking was that if it's not life-threatening just slap a band-aid on it, and keep right on going, you know? That virus, though, is pure evil. I've healed all kinds of injuries over the years; gunshot wounds, vamp bites, you name it. Sure I could heal the bite wound, but the virus was still there.

**_You and many other members of the Council made countless attempts to destroy the virus, but none were ever successful – is that right?_**

You betcha. Heck, there still are people trying to do that, even as we speak. The Watchers Council has a team whose sole purpose is to look through everything in the archives, and try to find a way to make sure it never comes back. So far, we haven't had any luck, but we're still trying.

**_When did you realize that the infection was incurable?_**

Well, you gotta keep in mind that at the time, we still thought this was a mystical problem. We'd encountered zombies in the past, just not infected ones. Since the PRC **[The former People's Republic of China.]**was still in full cover-up mode, and 'African rabies' was still an African problem as far as we knew, we didn't know what exactly we were dealing with until it was far too late.

We didn't connect them with what Xander was fighting in Africa, because he was out of contact with the IWC headquarters. If we'd known, things probably would have turned out a lot different. Getting a signal in Africa even with a satellite phone wasn't always easy, even back then.

But getting back to the matter at hand, there are magical potions and poisons for just about anything; if you have the time and money to find them. That's what we thought we were dealing with, so when Rosana and Francielle passed on, I warded their bodies against anything like that.

The Council keep small morgues in the basements of every school around the world. They're an unfortunate side-effect of the lives slayers lead. Nothing fancy; just something to store the bodies in, until arrangements can be made with their families. Both of the bodies were stored there when the head of the school heard the banging noises.

**_They were trying to escape, once the infection had…well, transformed them?_**

Exactly. And my wards hadn't done a darn thing to stop it either. It was a good thing how it was Mr. Pacheco who discovered them; a lot of the other Watchers were young, they might have tried to help...oh, Gaea. **[Sighs.]**I don't want to think about how bad that could have turned out.

Luckily, he called me in straightaway, and I...I took care of the problem. I had to completely incinerate the bodies, just to be sure. I never realized that they would be the first of thousands, heck, maybe hundreds of thousands.

**_Is that how..._**

I ended up looking like this?

**[She waves her right hand over her face and body. The expression on her face is a wistful one.]**

**_Yes._**

The short answer is yes, I mean it all depends on what side of the emotion spectrum you lean towards. If I'd been doing white magic at that time, that's what color my hair and eyes would be right now. **[Shrugs.]**But when I couldn't cure the Solanum, there wasn't a whole lot of demand for healing.

**_Are there others like you out there, or could there be in the future?_**

No, see, people with potential magic ability don't have to worry about ending up like me. If anyone else had tried to throw as much black magic at those things as I did, it would most likely have killed them.

**_What about your associate in Los Angeles, Cordelia Chase? There have been reports of her having pupil-less white eyes, and her body emanating a bright light._**

That's something completely different. You should really ask her, if you want to know what that's about. In my case though, Giles once said I'm like one in a million.

**_You're referring to Rupert Giles, head of the IWC, I take it?_**

**[She smiles brightly at the mention of that name, appearing calm and relaxed.]**

Yep, head of the good ol' International Watchers Council. He's on your interview list, too, right?

**_Yes, I'm looking forward to interviewing as many of you as I can._**

Good. Because I'm sick of hearing people say we're some kind of cult, or some kidnapping ring that snatches little girls. I know my appearance doesn't exactly help our case, but we're all doing a lot of good out there, and it's time everyone understood that.

**_That leads me to something else I'm sure the readers will be interested in. Is it true what happened during, or immediately after, the so-called 'last broadcast'?_**

**[She looks down at her desk, her perky demeanor vanishing at once.]**

**_I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-_**

No, it's okay. I know people will just keep asking about what happened that day, until they get an answer that will satisfy them. It's just, I've only ever spoken about it with close friends. But if this helps clear things up, and makes people a little less nervous around me, then I'm all for it...**[Sighs.]**

Look - at that point in time, Rio was overrun. We had a three block area in the resort district basically surrounded by the undead. We'd given up the slayer school months before, and we had several thousand people packed into this tiny space to look after.

Fights were constantly breaking out, riots were a regular occurrence, we had at least two murders a week. A lot of the slayers weren't even from Rio, they were from the surrounding areas - farmers' daughters and the like. Most of the girls were only fifteen or sixteen, and they were forced to basically be cops or...some kind of law enforcement, anyway.

Since all the barricades had been hastily built, we constantly had to fight off one horde or another who had broken through a weak spot. That just added to the tension all the more, we were always hearing on the Argentine radio how some military base or private group had gotten overrun like that.

**_Argentine? There were no local broadcasts in Rio de Janeiro anymore?_**

There was only one, some guy calling himself Marco - he kept broadcasting on 94.1 FM for a long time. We never figured out if he'd worked there as a DJ, or if he was just some random guy at the station. He was all alone in that place, surrounded by God knows how many zombies...but we finally had to make it a rule to stop listening to that guy.

**_Why is that?_**

The suicides. **[Shakes her head.]**Apparently, his wife and daughter had become infected at some point, so he locked them both in a closet somewhere in the station. He'd spend hours a day broadcasting as he sat by the door, begging for their forgiveness as they pounded away, trying to get out.

**_It certainly sounds awful._**

Yeah, that was just too much for the survivors we were trying to keep alive. Almost all of them had lost someone to those things, and this guy was just opening wounds over and over again with every broadcast. We never found out who he really was, and one day there was nothing but static coming from the station.

There was nothing I could have done to help the guy, at least not at that point. Every one of those people you could have saved, it eats at you, ya know?

**_Because you didn't have that kind of power at the time._**

And that's the crux of the matter, see, it's about what I could have done. People in pain don't want to hear that, though - they want to know why you didn't save their son, daughter, husband, wife...whoever. Most people need a scapegoat to blame for all the awful things that have happened in this world, and I'm an easy target.

That's what people don't realize, even the ones that don't blame me for not doing it sooner. I didn't actually _do _anything to make it happen, it just did. It was a perfect storm at that exact moment in time. Like I said before, one in a million.

**_What exactly did happen that day? No one I've talked to was ever completely sure._**

The barriers keeping the zombies out, they were always breaking...leaving gaps for one, ten, a hundred, you just never knew. What might look and feel solid isn't so much after you've had a thousand fists pounding away at it overnight, and that's just one section of many.

Gaps could usually be sealed pretty fast once they were discovered. Kill the zeds quick and start blocking the hole off. Usually, we'd just back a car into a spot to hold it up until something more permanent could be put there. By that point, neither I nor the slayers showed up to things like that unless we were in the area.

**_Given your abilities, wouldn't you have been an asset in those situations?_**

Yeah, but by that time, we'd all been run ragged by the constant attacks. The slayers and I finally had to call everyone together and tell them, unless there's ten or more of those things, handle it yourselves. I know it sounds cruel, but if we had to rush over every time a zed poked his head through a break in the barrier, we'd never get anything else done...

It's like pulling a detective away from a murder investigation, to deal with a loud music complaint. I'm not trying to say that we were better than everyone else, but those breakthroughs happened every day, and the people we were trying to save had to learn to take care of it themselves.

**_I see. So what changed?_**

The day things changed was mostly like any other, at the time. We were still working on getting food from outside the barriers, mostly by building bridges to rooftops outside the safe zone. That was rough going because a lot of times, the buildings we were connecting to were overflowing with infected.

In the meantime, that meant food riots. On top of that, a family of three had been murdered in their home the night before, and the place had been emptied of anything even remotely edible. Unfortunately, that was a common occurrence; but what was happening in Argentina, now that was what everyone was talking about.

See, up until the day before, Buenos Aires had been a human stronghold. Unlike a lot of other cities around the world, it had remained more or less intact. With their huge radio tower, we could hear all of their broadcasts as clear as day.

**_But this was in another country, hundreds of miles away from you._**

It was still a beacon of hope to the people we were protecting. If the government was still in place there, the thinking was that surely Brasília was doing just as well. Think about it; the Brazilian Army was the biggest in Latin America, so if the Argentineans could do it, why not them?

The battle updates were coming through every radio in the place, you couldn't escape it. Every survivor was glued to their radio, hoping beyond hope that the Argentineans would pull through. Of course, when everyone is distracted, that's when a zed has to show up to ruin your day.

Nobody noticed it at first. Then there were two, three, four and so on. The people that were supposed to watch the barriers were taken so suddenly, they didn't even have a chance to raise the alarm. **[She glares angrily.]**It was pure complacency, and it got people killed.

By the time the slayers and I arrived, there were over fifty zombies inside the safe zone. The only reason the whole place wasn't overrun, was because so many of them were fighting to get a piece of those that had already been dragged down. The rest were being more or less held back by the other survivors.

Seeing how bad it had gotten, I used 'thicken' to stop them in their tracks-

**_I'm sorry, thicken?_**

Yeah. **[Shakes her head.]**It's a spell that wraps the target in an almost unbreakable black ring. The idea is to hold the zeds in place, so that someone else can bash their heads in without being in any danger. It worked out really well, most of the time.

Any mid-level witch can use it pretty easily, but how strong it is really depends on the kind of power you have. The problem was, there were only two other magic users amongst the survivors, so most of the time, I was on my own in that regard.

With so many zeds, of course, it was a real strain to hold that many; but I managed. Everyone had started to calm down and take out the zombies, business as usual - when there was a cry somewhere behind me. I couldn't really do anything about what was happening, so I just kind of ignored it. Then someone turned the volume on a radio up to its highest setting, and that's when I heard it.

**_The last broadcast._**

Yeah. That beautiful voice...have you ever heard the recording that was made?

**_No, but I'll be speaking to someone who worked at Radio Free Earth in the near future._**

I've heard her name was Maria, that she was just about to get her big break when the world started to collapse.³ I really believe that was the catalyst for what happened in Rio that day. I can't think of anything else that could have done it.

3. _The actual identity of the woman who sang the Spanish lullaby has never been unequivocally established._

I remember how I was struggling to keep all the zeds in check to make sure no one else got hurt or killed. I was tired as hell, up all the night before, trying to heal a woman with a spinal injury who'd fallen off a balcony. My emotions were running high, and just for a second, _one second_, I had a complete breakdown.

It was anger over the situation. Hatred for those shambling corpses that had destroyed so many lives. Sorrow to hear that woman pour her heart and soul into that song, going out to those who would still survive. She knew it was all over, that lullaby was just her way of saying to the rest of us '_hey, it'll be okay_'.

When I lost it, after that moment...every single zombie within ten blocks was gone. I had poured so much power into that thicken spell, they'd all imploded. I woke up chained to my bed hours later, surrounded by a group of very frightened slayers.

**_They actually chained you to a bed?_**

There-there was someone _else_...who had the same black-eyed look that I had in the past. She ended up causing a lot of problems, so they were just being cautious. Those girls were quite right, too; considering what I had just done, and the huge amount of power I had used to do it, it would have been crazy for them not to assume the worst.

**_You said before that your appearance changed due to what happened that day. Considering all of the zombies you wiped out, and how many lives you probably saved, shouldn't your hair and eyes have turned white?_**

No, because white magic is about healing, love and being in tune with nature. I know it sounds all hippie-ish, but it's still true. 'Thicken' is a really gray area; it neither harms nor helps, it's just sorta in between. But when I channeled all of my anger and rage, it became a destructive force, and that's black magic.

**_Do you ever regret what happened, given how much you've been physically changed?_**

Sometimes it bothers me, sure...but considering the push we made after that to reclaim the city, I can't complain. There were a lot of people trapped in small pockets in the surrounding areas, and they would have died of starvation if I hadn't done what I did that day.

You know, I can still hear that lullaby in my head. It's there pretty much every minute of every day, haunting me. It's even in my dreams at night, I can never escape it. I think-I think when I can finally do that, maybe I'll go back to being normal...

**|O|O|**

**END**


	4. Kennedy Fitzgerald

**Z War: The Council Interviews**

**Author: zTiamaTz**

**Email: WMullen78 at Yahoo . com**

**Beta By: Starway Man  
**

**|O|O|**

**SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA**

**[After receiving my pass at the front gate, I stand in the middle of a production lot on Olympic Boulevard, looking for someone to help me out. People here seem to be in constant motion, and I find it hard to stop anyone to ask directions. Finally, a young man takes pity on me, and leads me to the trailer of my next interview. Once inside, I am greeted warmly by Miss Fitzgerald, and we sit down on a large couch that dominates an entire wall of the cramped trailer.]**

Sorry for the mess, my usual trailer's in the shop. Some drunken idiot T-boned it on Wilshire while it was being moved...

**_That's alright, I've been in a lot worse places over the years._**

**[She snorts.] **Given your reputation in the media world, that doesn't surprise me. Heck, a lot of places in the U.S. still look like they belong in a Third World country.

Still, it beats being crammed into a tiny room with six other slayers in Rio. Once you've lived like that, this place **[Motions around the trailer.] **is like a freaking castle. And considering the conditions some people are still living in, I've got nothing to complain about.

**_Shall we get started, then?_**

Fire away. Or as my uncle used to put it back when we were vacationing in the Hamptons: fire when ready, Gridley.

**_Interesting that you should mention the Hamptons; you've been accused of being arrogant and spoiled by some parts of the popular press. What are your thoughts on that?_**

Yeah, I know exactly who you're talking about - plus who's behind them. And I'm spoiled, because I grew up rich? Because my family was able to keep hold of its money through the war? I swear, you have to love that double-standard the Council has for some people...example. Cordelia Chase was the biggest rich bitch in Sunnydale way back when, she treated most people - including and especially my ex, Willow Rosenberg - like complete trash through most of their high school years...

Now look at her, Little Miss Pious. "_Oh, look at me, I glow real bright, and adopt orphans like some kind of pre-war celebrity._" But you know what? **[Name withheld for legal reasons.] **she's not, and never was either.

**_Do you know if the source of Ms. Chase's power is similar to what makes a girl one of the chosen, like yourself?_**

**[She shrugs.]** Don't know and don't care, really. If you're going to be interviewing the eggheads in the Council, why don't you run it by one of them? If you can get one of them to unstrap their chins from their reading desks, I'm sure they can give you an answer.

**_I'm sensing bitterness. Where exactly did this animosity between you and the IWC come from?_**

Oh, you didn't hear? **[She gives me a faux-shocked expression.] **Between the 'insiders' of the Council talking to that resurrection of the National Enquirer, and Andrew's tell-all books, I thought the entire world had heard about it.

**_Whether or not that's true, for the purposes of this interview - I want your perspective..._**

Certain people in the Council, who shall remain nameless, are pissed at me - on account of they think I broke up with Willow because of how she looks. But that's complete bull; ask any of the six girls who were there in the Rio safe zone. I was crashing in that cramped room with them for nearly a month before Willow went all vein-y.

**_If it's not too much of a personal question, then, can you tell me why it ended between you?_**

Didn't you ask her? Word is, Willow was at the top of your interview list.

**_Miss Rosenberg declined to answer any questions regarding you, or your relationship._**

**[She sighs.]** We were just too different, I guess. It started off as a wartime romance in Sunnydale, back when that town still existed. It developed into more, and it was fun when we were spending all day on the beach, and all night humping in our hotel room - but when things completely went to hell, it just didn't work any longer.

See, I'm a night person; I've always been that way, even before I got called. I liked patrolling the barriers at night - with my senses as good as they are, I could see a break coming before anybody else. We never really had to worry about carriers like other places did. But Willow? She liked the daylight, you probably know the type - up at the crack of dawn, just as I was about to crash after a long night's work.

You know that saying, 'absence makes the heart grow fonder'? As far as I'm concerned, that's pure bull. All we did was fight when we were together, and I'm ashamed to admit - it was always about stupid stuff, too. Which of us ate the last bit of food without mentioning it to the other one, things like that. It finally came to a head when Willow and I almost had a brawl in the room we shared...

**_The two of you actually came close to a physical altercation?_**

Altercation? **[She snorts.]** Seriously, do you have _any _idea the kind of damage a slayer and a witch of Willow's level can do? At the time neither of us were thinking straight, and between the two of us, we could have ended up leveling that entire building.

What happened was I came home and found her tanked from a bottle of tequila I had stashed away for an emergency. Even with all those witch-y powers, Willow never could hold her liquor. She'd gotten a call in the middle of the night; some kid had been running around and tripped, ended up with a corkscrew through his eye.

The medical staff we had was a former EMT, a couple of nurses, a podiatrist and a gynecologist. They couldn't do anything for him, the tip had punctured his brain, but somehow, he was still alive. Willow was called in, with the hope that she could magic the thing out and somehow heal him. She tried her best, but he still ended up bleeding to death.

It sounds nasty, I know. Still, that sort of stuff was always happening back then; usually not that severe, but the kinda stuff that you could have just gone to a hospital for. Willow was always getting calls like that, but something about that kid just made her want to get plastered that night.

So there I was, ready to hit the sack - I'm already pissed off because I'm on the rag, literally... **[She smirks.]** That's another thing people never talk about, you know.

**_What do you mean?_**

All the survival stories you hear - people running out of food, medicine, bullets...but what do you never hear about? Feminine hygiene products. Trust me, it was a major contributor to the situation. With a couple thousand people all stuck in a three city block area, we burned through pads and tampons _fast_.

And let me tell you, having what amounts to a dish rag stuffed down your panties while you're bleeding like a sieve - that does _not _promote nice feelings toward your lush of a girlfriend. Especially when all you want to do is get some sleep after battling zed all night.

**_I'll take your word for it._**

**[She laughs at my response.]** I kinda thought you would. The only guy I ever knew whose balls never shrank whenever the subject of FHP's came up was Harris. But then, he always spent _way_ too much time around women; hell, the closest thing to a guy friend he had back in Sunnydale was a vampire, and they hated each other's guts.

**Would that be Angel or Spike you're referring to?**

**[She laughs again.]** Harris didn't get along with either one of them, as far as I know. With Spike, before Sunnydale collapsed, I saw for myself how Harris definitely did _not _like him. Willow told me it was because of something that happened just before the bloodsucker left to get his soul in Africa. She didn't know what it was, though.

And as far as Angel is concerned, after everyone relocated from Sunnydale to Los Angeles? Harris definitely liked to needle him a lot. Guy poked fun at the vampire's clothes, his hair, even his convertible - but there wasn't any venom to it like there was with Spike. Kinda odd, considering the stories Willow told me of what things were like during their high school years.

**What do you personally think of the two gentlemen in question?**

Well, this is all just my opinion, and I'd like that noted for the record. But to be absolutely honest, I never really liked Spike - he was an annoying loudmouth who apparently took advantage of a girl whose soul had been yanked out of Heaven, by her well-meaning, but irresponsibly idiotic friends.

I remember that night Spike called all of us a bunch of "sad, ungrateful traitors" for telling Buffy that we weren't going to go along with one of her attack plans; it was proof enough for me that the only reason William the Bloody was on our side was his slayer girlfriend, soul or otherwise.

Having said that, I'm sure it's common knowledge that I'm not part of the Buffy Summers fan club, and I never will be. But looking back on everything that happened both before and after Sunnydale imploded, I know for a fact that when the chips are down, Buffy is someone you want to have in your corner.

I may not like her, but I do respect what she did to keep all of those people alive. The best thing Buffy can do, in my opinion, is find herself a nice _living _guy, have a couple of kids with him and settle down somewhere once zed is finally gone. If the war made anything clear it's that life is way too short for trivialities, and that goes double if you're a slayer.

As far as Angel goes, I never really had a lot of contact with him while we were in Los Angeles. I mean, he was nice enough to let us crash at the Hyperion when we had nowhere else to go, even if he didn't have to do that. It's just really messed up what happened to him; sure he's a vamp, but he didn't deserve _that_...

**_So, is there any truth to the accusations Andrew Wells made about Angel in his book, 'Saviors of Humanity'?_**

I'm not going to get into that, for one thing it's none of my business and for another, everyone knows how I'm not the most objective person around where Wells is concerned. All I'll say is, I can't believe how anybody actually buys anything that guy has to say. As a fellow author, you should be insulted that he even found a publisher for all that crap he wrote.

**_I know that you and he have sparred in the press before._**

Sparred? Is that what you want to call it? **[She becomes visibly angry.] **Wells actually had the nerve to compare me to the Whore of Babylon! He even had a Bible quote at the beginning of the chapter on me.¹ Things between Willow and I didn't work out, so, what - I'm supposed to become a fucking nun for the rest of my life?

1. _Revelations 17:4 - And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication._

And what was Wells trying to accomplish by writing what he did about everyone in the Council, kiss their asses? If so, he burnt those bridges in the very same book with all of those crazy superhero names he gave them. He actually called Tamika **[Slayer Tamika Lawson 1986-2008]** the 'black death' for how many zombies she killed in Boston, during the big retreat.

Seriously, who even says stuff like that anymore? Racism is practically dead in this country these days; if there was one good thing about the war, it was that. People were too busy worrying about not getting eaten, to get antsy about the skin color of the guy next to them holding up the barricades.

The thing is I never met the girl, but she was Faith's number two in Boston, so she had to be one of the best. I hated it that Wells took the memory of a girl who went up against three hundred zeds by herself, and turned it into a race issue.

Because whenever her name is brought up nowadays, do they talk about how many people survived the war because of her? No. They talk about this 'black death' bullshit, and that's just wrong.

**_Yet people continue to buy his books..._**

Of course, because everybody wants to know about the IWC. Since they weren't free with the information, and that idiot was, of course they'll buy his stupid books. Plus, since he's got a heavy socialist slant on things, the lefties 'overlook' the fact that he was less than PC in some things he wrote about.

And the truly ironic thing is, Wells wants to quote the Bible at me? Of all the books in existence, he chooses the one written by members of a religion that isn't exactly fond of _his_ lifestyle choices, if you know what I mean...

**_But aren't you..._**

A lesbian? A homosexual, if you want to get technical about it?

**_Yes._**

Sure, but I'm not the one using the Bible to attack people. Besides, the way I look at it, if God actually cares who we're doing what with - he'd be on my side of the sidelines, anyway. Think about it; if He's constantly watching over us like the Bible says, then what kind of porn do you think He would rather see? The one with two guys, or two girls getting it on? Hey, I think we both know the Catholic Church's answer to that one.

**_That's an interesting way to look at things. But aren't you worried about losing sponsors with those kinds of statements?_**

My fans and my supporters know me for who and what I am, so the fundies aren't a major issue. It's not like there's that many left anymore, anyway. Heck - how many of them thought the outbreaks were the coming 'Rapture', and got themselves and their kids purposely infected? I'm sure there's a special place in Hell reserved for those people.

Sure, before the war, there were enough of them to get pretty much any show they wanted off the air if they cried foul loud enough. But with the kind of ratings KtZS is pulling in right now, there's no way we'd ever get shut down. There'd be instant riots outside the studio gates, and no one wants that.

**_How did the show come about?_**

Well, the reality show I was doing ended because there weren't really that many places left here in the States with significant zed numbers. After the first five episodes, that was pretty much it. There was some talk of going overseas, but the budget just wasn't there for it, even with how popular the show was...

**_Is there any truth to the rumors of the producers contemplating doing the show in Iceland?_**

Not that I know of. And even if they had asked me to do it, I would have laughed right in their faces. Those small towns I did, with one or two hundred zeds, that's one thing. With the proper backup, weapons and game plan, it wasn't all that hard to pull off. But Iceland? I'd rather knock on North Korea's bunker entrance stark naked, and ask for a cup of sugar.

There's what, over half a million zeds there? Even Boy Scout Harris won't touch that place for at least another ten years, when they're all finally dried out and slow enough to take care of. There's no way there's any human survivors left there, and it's not like the world needs the space.

Anyway, when that whole thing fell through, Roy Elliot - you've heard of him, right?²

2. _Director of such war time films as: 'Victory at Avalon: The Battle of the Five Colleges' and 'Dos Palmos'. His films have been directly linked to the decline of ADS _[Asymptomatic Demise Syndrome]_ cases in communities up and down the west coast during the war._

**_Yes, I have an interview scheduled with him next week in Malibu._**

Right, well, he came to me and asked if I'd be interested in doing a serialized, hour-long TV show. At first, I wasn't too sure about it; I'm sure you know how many bad TV shows there were, even before the war. But how could I turn him down, though, look at all the good his movies did...

**_Critics have said you took on the show not to decrease cases of ADS, but because of the lucrative contract FOX was offering you._**

People want to call me Ice Queen, and compare me to that pre-war celibri-cunt **[Name withheld for legal reasons.]** - that's bullshit. People jump all over me for being rich, but I don't _need_ the money from the show. I don't _need_ it to be famous either, I'm a slayer for Christ sakes.

That bitch's little sister has even been trying to hire a slayer to play bodyguard with her for months now. What? A little dog that could fit in a purse isn't hip enough anymore? It seems to me like she has to one-up her big sis, even though that woman got killed live on TV for being stupid.

That had to be the smartest thing **[Name withheld for legal reasons.]** did in her entire life. **[She laughs.]** But now, she's right back to following in her footsteps. I guess all those years of hiding out in the penthouse of one of her Daddy's posh hotels was too much for her.

**_Didn't your family in Connecticut do something similar?_**

Yeah, but the difference is my parents took in as many people as they could. When the great panic started, they told the staff to get all of their family members to the mansion. Every single room in the house was filled with people.

What did the **[Name withheld for legal reasons.] **do? They blew up the stairs three floors from the top so that they'd be safe up there and have plenty of room to keep living large. How messed up is that? They could have packed that hotel and blown up the stairs between the first and second floors.

So why didn't they? Because they didn't want to have to mingle with the 'commoners'. Those scumbags could have saved hundreds, maybe even thousands of people, but they couldn't have been bothered.

**_Could it simply be that they were worried about infected persons being let in as well?_**

Like they didn't have any rat dogs at that place? The Israelis proved even before the great panic that dogs could sense those that were infected, nobody could hide it. My father had Romeo and George, his two Bull Mastiffs, do the same thing at the gates for everybody coming in. It went off without a hitch.

You're telling me those people couldn't have done the same thing? Of course they could have, they just didn't want to. You want to know who else didn't? Try **[All names withheld for legal reasons.]** I'm sure you've heard of them, right?

**_Yes._**

All has-been actors before the war, and who loved going down to kiss the ass of that commie South American dictator. They all hid out together in North Carolina, in what would have amounted to a freaking _castle_ in Europe.

And can you believe they had the nerve to complain about the smell of burning zed bodies when the Army showed up and took out all the zeds that were surrounding them? They wouldn't even let those guys in so they'd have a safe place to crash at night.

And why? Because they 'couldn't condone military action'. Funny how when their dictator pal was using _his _military to arrest anybody who wanted fair elections before the war, they never said a word.

They were always bitching about the people this, and the people that. Where were the people when they moved into that place to hide? And where are they now? Back in LA attending cocktail parties now that's it's safe, and trying to get that fat bastard back into power.

**_It seems from your comments that you aren't a big fan of either party..._**

You could say that. **[She grins widely.] **The lefties hate me because I'm a rich lesbian who won't support their silly causes. And the righties hate me because I'm a rich lesbian who won't pretend to be straight.

I'm fine with that, though, my show is still number one on TV and I'd say the majority of America likes it. Both sides can go screw themselves; as long as I have the ratings, they can bitch all they want, I'm not going anywhere.

**_Speaking of your television show..._**

Yeah, sorry about that. I kinda went off on one hell of tangent, didn't I?

**_That's perfectly fine, I'm interested in anything you want to talk about._**

About the show, what can I say? The pilot script they gave me was good, the people they cast were solid...sure I needed to get an acting coach, but I've always been a fast learner. And almost before we knew it, we had the number one show on Monday nights.

Roy makes sure the scripts are realistic, and we do what we can with the limited acting pool we have. There are a lot of really good people out there, but you can only use the same actors so many times for new parts.

The biggest problem though is getting people to play zed. Before the war, people would come from hundreds of miles away to play a zombie in a movie for free. Even if they were just in the background, and never got a close-up, they were happy.

Now we have paid extras, and every once in a while, someone will go into Z-shock. You can't blame them; being in the middle of a pretend zed horde, and suddenly having a flashback? We have to keep therapists on set all the time for exactly that reason...

**_What about the criticisms leveled by members of the IWC that the characters on your show are parodies of themselves?_**

I guess people see what they want to see. For the record I reached out to a lot of those guys, telling them to come to LA and have some input into the show. But they're always complaining about how they're perceived by the public, and they won't do anything to actually change things.

I mean, look at me; nobody gives me grief about zed or the supernatural in general. And as much as I hate to admit it, you can say the exact same thing about that limp-wrist Wells. So why all the hot air from the IWC, you ask? Because the Council is still trying to be a secret organization, 'tradition' and all that.

Some of those people in England, especially the older types, I swear that's all that their brains are wired for. But it's kind of hard to pull off, when everybody knows who and what you are.

Still, if the Council people think they're being lampooned or whatever, they're entitled to their opinions - however right or wrong they may be.

**_Does all that explain the very public cat-fight during the Hyperion Charities fundraiser recently, between you and Cordelia Chase?_**

Yeah, she insisted the 'Hannah Hunt' character on the show was based almost entirely on her, and that we were portraying her as a complete slut. But if Cordelia thinks she has something in common with a girl who bangs a different guy each week in the midst of a zombie apocalypse - well, I'm sure you can draw your own conclusions about what that means.

We'd been sniping at each other back and forth all night, and then it just came to a head. Everyone knew it was coming, having us both at the same place like that pretty much made it inevitable.

And sure, she managed to rip off my top in front of all those paparazzi, but that was just a shredded top. Cordelia was the one that had her Versace dress ruined. **[She smiles.]** The funny part is, I could go and buy a new top just like that; but she has to _save _for her new dress.

**_Don't you think it was the wrong place and time to do such a thing, at an event for orphaned and feral children?_**

Maybe, but I bet that fight got a ton of press, even from outfits that weren't covering it. If anything, it was the highlight of the evening; they hired a boring orchestra like every other party in that town. No wonder the average Joe thinks rich people are snotty, why can't they ever hire a normal band?

**_How is that-_**

I mean, people were practically cheering when she threw me into the violin section. That stopped the music fast, and the crowd sure as heck weren't cheering her kicking _my _ass...

**[She pauses, before giving me an easy smile.]**

Sorry, tangent again. Honestly, though, if people are going to give, it's because they care about the kids, not what the people at the party were doing. I may not like Cordelia Chase; but she, along with Charlie and Anne, do a lot of good work for those kids. If the cause wasn't worth the effort, I wouldn't have gone.

**_Any comment on the characters 'John Taylor' and 'Ken Adams', who Ms. Chase publicly identified as imitations of Mr. Giles and Mr. Harris?_**

Nothing you can't read for yourself on the show's various websites all over the Internet. Okay, I will admit - 'John' was based loosely on Rupert Giles as the patriarchal older male authority figure, but that's where the similarity ends. I mean the character isn't British, and he hates tea!

I think we've portrayed the character in a good manner. My original watcher before Sunnydale was kind of a dick; I see it as a compliment that my TV one is based on Giles. The character is smart, has a sense of humor, and doesn't have a stick up his ass. What more can you ask for?

**_And the Ken character, and his disability?_**

Yeah, I know. So the character has a leg brace, you think people with disabilities didn't survive the war? What about that guy, Joe something, in the wheelchair.³ They made a war memorial with him in it...

3. _Joseph Muhammad, a member of the Wenatchee, Washington Neighborhood Security Teams. His famous, bronze Neighborhood Security Memorial on the mall in Washington, D.C., consists of two standing figures, and a third, seated in a wheelchair._

Seriously, just because Harris only has one eye, _that's_ the comparison? The character Ken is pretty much a complete pussy, someone who only cares about himself. Every time he sees a zed on the show, he runs and hides. You can't _get _any further from Boy Scout Harris than that...

And as for what Cordelia screamed about that night, concerning me pushing for 'Hannah' and 'Ken' to end up together to mock what happened to her in high school? It's not true. As far as I know, the writers have no such plans in mind for the characters anyway.

**_Some critics have said that it's in poor taste to show a disabled person in a bad light._**

What, since the guy has a bum leg, he can't be an asshole? That has to be some kind of '-ism'. I'm sure if I were like the rest of the whiners in Hollywood, I'd walk off the set until someone changed it. Luckily for everybody involved, I live in the real world.

**_One final question. If the IWC called upon you for help, would you answer their call?_**

I may be a TV star, but I'm also a slayer. My first priority is make sure the world is still there in the morning. If they need me to help prevent Armageddon, I like to think my ego isn't that tender that I'll refuse out of spite or something.

Granted, it's unlikely the Council will ever ask me for anything, at least with the current administration in place; but if anything as bad as another zed war crops up, you can believe me when I say that I'll be there to help save the planet from the bad guys.

**|O|O|**

**END**


	5. Faith Harris P1

**Z War: The Council Interviews**

**Author: zTiamaTz**

**Email: WMullen78 at Yahoo . com**

**Beta By: Starway Man  
**

**|0|0|**

**MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS**

**[A forty-five minute drive north of Boston, Alexander and Faith Harris' home is in a quiet area. Nestled within six acres of woodland, it's the kind of place you go to get away from it all. After winding my way up the gravel road, I come to a partially-built, stockade-style fence, a perfect defense in the making against attack by the undead.**

**Soon after, I am inside a rustic log cabin home, being escorted into the den by Mrs. Harris. Dressed in a plain T-shirt and jeans, she seems a far cry from the fearsome warrior woman so many have come to expect.]  
**

**_Thank you for allowing me into your home, Mrs. Harris-_**

Call me Faith, 'cause that particular label? Makes me think you're talkin' 'bout my mother-in-law. Not that I ever met her - but then from what Xander says, that's no big loss.

**_Uh, of course. Err…how shall we do this, then?_**

**[She gives me a wide, friendly smile.]** I thought the deal was you ask, 'n I answer?

**_Yes, but I usually find that it helps if the interviewee sets the appropriate tone right from the start. Everyone has their own way of doing these things, after all._**

Alright, whatever. Well, after all that shit with the First Evil was over 'n done with in the 'Dale, I spent six months at the Boston school, teaching all the girls there everything I knew. That was just a temp job, though - when it was done, Giles set me up with a bank account and back pay, and then I pretty much went freelance.

Watchers were in helluva short supply back then, and the one guy I would've tolerated on the road with me, he'd already set himself up in LA. I gotta tell ya, riding around the country on a motorcycle's got to be one of coolest things a person can do.

With all the cash I had banked, I bought me a custom-made American IronHorse, 'n I hit the road. I'd ride into a town, patrol the graveyards, and check the local papers for any weird murders. Mostly though, I just kept an eye out for any demon bullshit. Seems like wherever I went, I was up to my armpits in it.

**_I was under the impression that before the war, the majority of demons kept close to large population centers..._**

Yeah, but with slayers setting up shop in so many of the big cities, the smart ones started to hit the small towns to get some privacy. I'd come in, bust up their plans, and leave one alive to tell the rest that they better watch it - or the Council would send in more slayers to wipe 'em all out.

It worked pretty good while it lasted. Had a job I loved, freedom to go where I wanted and set my own hours, plus a free place to crash in any city with a slayer school or safe house.

**_Were you concerned when the reports about 'African rabies' became public knowledge?_**

Hell, no. First time I ever heard of it, I was in Washington State - and ya can't get much further removed from Africa than that. There's always something shitty going on in that place, look at those commercials with the starving kids that **[Name withheld for legal reasons.]** always runs.

Think about it; maybe if they didn't shove it in your face every time ya turn on the tube, people would still give a crap. Even the ones that did send 'em money, I bet a lot of them didn't care either. It's simple, send a check as your good deed for the month, then go out and fuck your neighbor over.

**_No concern for your future husband?_**

**[She snorts.] **Back then, no. 'Cause Xander and I barely knew each other. Well, alright, I knew him pretty well in the Biblical sense of the word, when we were both teenage kids there was one night when we... y'know. But we'd had a... well, I guess you could call it a falling out back in the day, and I took off for LA during Y2K. I didn't see Xander again until right before Sunny-D became a fucking crater.

And hell, other than what comes from fighting on the same team, we didn't really have a lot to say ta each other then. Between him losing his eye and his ex-fiancée, and me trying to get a real relationship with Woody **[Senior Watcher, Robin Wood] **going, I don't think we said more 'n five words to each other before we went our separate ways...

**_So there was no contact at all between the two of you between then, and the liberation of Fall River?_**

Nah, that shit **[She gestures to an enlarged photo of her self and Alxander Harris kissing on the cover of the first post-war issue of Time Magazine, hanging on a nearby wall.]** was literally how we met up for the first time after the whole Sunnydale thing.

**[Mr. and Mrs. Harris were the subjects of the now famous 'liberation kiss' photo, taken by photographer Gerald Simmons. The similarity to the VE Day photo of the 'kissing sailor' in Times Square, by Alfred Eisenstaedt in the August of 1945, unsurprisingly captured the hearts of the entire nation.]**

That whole thing ended up being such a huge pain in the balls, ya know? If I knew all the crap we'd eventually have to deal with back then, I'd have taken that camera and shoved it right up Simmons' ass. **[She brings her palm down to the desk for emphasis.]**

**_But the photo has become iconic..._**

Well, big whoop! Simmons takes a photo of me and Xan in a private moment, and ends up making a fucking mint when he sells it. Even gets one of those delayed putz awards, or whatever the hell they're called.¹ And what did we get out of it? Our faces plastered over every re-opened gossip rag, because the world had run out of beautiful people to hound 24/7.

1. _The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was re-established three years after the official end of the war._

And once they found out about the whole slayer thing, it wasn't just us anymore; it was anybody that was connected to the Council. Poor Red **[Senior Witch, Willow Rosenberg] **wouldn't leave her house in Brazil for three months 'cause of how she looked, for Christ sakes.

Sometimes it got so bad it made us wish people like **[Name withheld for legal reasons.]** and **[Name withheld for legal reasons.]** were still around. Dumb-ass celebrities had all that cash and connections, but still couldn't stay alive. If they had, maybe the rags woulda left us the fuck alone. Like that mansion massacre on Long Island, that shit still pisses me off to this day.²

2. _Refers to _[Name withheld for legal reasons.]_ who attempted to host a celebrity web cam at his mansion to ride out the war. The mansion was overrun by hundreds of people who learned of its location, and tried to gain access to gain safety from the zombies._

Ya know - I'da given my left tit and Xander's left nut to have digs like that during the war. Those assholes had it made, that place coulda held off a _million_fucking zacks. They had enough water, food, fuel and guns to last for years. Instead, look what fucking happened...

**_I was under the impression you did quite well in Fall River._**

Sure we did, but you gotta realize - there wasn't nothin' to do there once the daily work was done. Thing about slayers is, they got a shit-ton of energy to burn and they get bored _real_fast. A setup like that mansion? I woulda been good for a year, maybe two, easy.

That's why I got so much use outta that thing. **[She points above her head to the M14 rifle hung on the wall near the ceiling.] **Long as we got our supply drops, with plenty o' ammo, I was good.

**_You said you were in the mid-west when you first heard of African rabies. Where exactly were you when the panic started?_**

I was in Hastings, Nebraska; I think that bum-fuck town was called. In some hole-in-the-wall bar when that reporter chick broke the news about zack. Soon as I saw it, I knew we were in deep shit.

**_'We', as in the Council?_**

Nah, I mean _us_, **[She waves her hands around the room.]** as in the whole fucking planet. Most people in the world kept their heads up their asses when it came to the supernatural stuff. All of a sudden it's on TV, live in every house in America?

Still, you had a buncha dumb-ass rednecks laughing it up after hearing about it, asking 'bout what kinda drugs she was on... but I knew that wasn't gonna last long. If it was bad 'nuff to be on the tube, then it'd be knockin' on their doors soon enough.

So I paid my tab, packed up my shit in the motel room I was crashing at, and headed out for Beantown.

**_There was a slayer school in Lincoln, why didn't you go there instead?_**

'Cause that's my hometown, born and kinda-sorta raised there. Plus that's where all the slayers I trained were, I wasn't 'bout to leave 'em hanging. But what shoulda been a pretty easy drive took fucking forever, even on a bike.

People were starting to head up north, and cause o' that, sometimes it was real hard to find gas. **[She smirks.]** I remember how I bagged this trio of vamps one night, hanging around this beat-up old Explorer.

Fucking creeps had this racket goin' on, see, they set out a buncha gas cans along the side of the road with a '_Free gas!_' sign next to 'em. Normally, people would see a bunch a shady-lookin' dudes standing there at night, and just keep on moving.

But so many people were desperate to get the hell outta Dodge, they took stupid risks...

**_The vampires weren't attempting to evacuate as well?_**

Nah, but at the time, why would they? People didn't really know nothin' about the virus back then, didn't even know about a little scratch bein' enough to get ya infected. Hell, some people was still convinced Phalanx was still the real deal.

Vamps don't age, 'n they heal from just about anything. That dick Spike, I heard tell how he was in a wheelchair for months with a busted spine after B crippled him way back when. If they can heal from somethin' like that, they musta figured, what the hell did they have to worry about?

People learned about that carrier shit the hard way, we _all_did. When vamps were jumping the walls of safe zones and stuff, draining people and infecting them... zack was bad enough, but the infected vamps could bypass every defense that kept 'em out, and that's some scary fucking shit.

If it weren't for Dawnie **[Senior Translator, Dawn Jacobs nee Summers] **spreadin' the word to everybody 'round the world like she did, we mighta lost the whole damn war. Lucky fer us, people were willin' to believe that vamps were real by that point. Kinda hard not to, with zack moaning for yer blood all day 'n night.

**[She stares off into space for a moment.]**

Ah, shit, where was I?

**_You were talking about the vampire trick with the gas sign._**

Oh yeah... so anyways, these vamps musta been raking it in - blood, money, and whatever supplies they were taking offa people. When I pull up, they're practically drooling over me; which ain't surprising, I do that to just about any species I come in contact with.

I didn't wanna tip 'em off yet, so I'm playing it real ditzy, doing my best Buffy act, ya know? **[She chuckles at this.] **If you're reading this B, put the damn phone down, I'm just kiddin'...

So I get up close, act like I'm gonna show how grateful I am to 'em - and boom, before ya know it, there's three dust piles in the grass and I got all the gas I need. After siphoning off the Explorer's big-ass tank to fill mine, I did all the gas cans I could too, and left 'em by the sign.

After that, I just kept heading east, and I saw a lot of fucked-up shit along the way too. People getting dragged out of cars and beat up, shootouts... all the nasty stuff you'd expect when the world's crumblin' down all 'round you.

I never saw many zacks back then, though. I just kept going east, heading fer the old home town.

**_As a slayer, wouldn't you have been a huge asset in helping those communities you were passing through?_**

Sure I could have, but you gotta remember - this was all during the first month of the panic. Most I ever saw at once back then was four of 'em, chowin' down on some poor sap. The rest of the time, it was ones and twos. Was I supposed to stop 'n get off my bike every single time I saw one? I'd have never managed to get outta Nebraska if I did.

Besides - by then, everybody knew ya had ta brain 'em. Anybody with a bat, crowbar, or hell, even a fucking _rock_coulda done them real easy. People are always bitching these days, why didn't the slayers do this or do that? Maybe if those people had gotten off their asses and done more for themselves, it wouldn't have gotten so bad.

**_Isn't it the Council's, in particular, the slayer's mission to protect humanity?_**

Sure it is, but that don't mean everyone else can't contribute. Hell - how many apocalypses did B and Fang's **[The ensouled vampire known as Angel] **crews save the world from, before the war? We all did our part, but people were expecting us slayers to just run into a horde of zacks and tear 'em apart like some kinda Terminator or whatever?

They think just 'cause the chosen crowd got the whole slayer package, none of 'em can touch us, or we couldn't get infected... hell, some people think it was our fucking duty to do it, and if we got our asses killed saving some dumbass who coulda saved himself if he'd had the balls to fight back, so what?

Sure we're stronger 'n move faster than the average guy, but that doesn't mean we can't fuck up like anybody else. All it takes is a second of distraction, and zack's got his teeth in ya. Every time I woulda got off that bike, I was risking my life.

_One little slip_...believe me, I've seen how much damage something like that can do, and I never wanna feel that again.

**_Is that 'something' you're speaking about anything in particular you'd care to share?_**

Sorry, but that's real personal, ya know? Happened when I was in Sunnydale way back before the war, and I don't wanna talk about it.

**_That's fine, please continue._**

Gotcha. Well, I didn't come up against any serious numbers till I hit Ohio. I'd come up through Indiana and took the back roads to avoid most of the trouble. At the time, there was a lotta people tryin' to head north and get ta Canada.

When I passed between Lima and Toledo, it was like a big-ass caravan. You'd see a lot of zack bodies around, with crushed skulls, or bullet holes. The first-wave people had started to wise up by that point, so I figured we might have a good chance to end it all quick and clean.

So I just kept going, I didn't realize how deep the world was truly in it till I got to Norwalk. I wasn't a big town, heck, Sunny-D was bigger than it was. People from all over the place were heading west around Lake Erie and into Michigan.

A lot of 'em coulda just used the boats that were goin' back and forth, but I guess people didn't wanna risk getting stuffed in some cargo hold with an infected. Couldn't blame them for that, look what happened to Cari **[Slayer Caridad Santiago, Ret.] **'n her girls on that cruise ship...

Man, Norwalk was a fucking mess; lotta people had left Cleveland and were heading the same way. Still, it didn't seem all that much different at first from any other city I passed through, and I didn't notice it till I hit the downtown area.

Zack had been tagging along behind the Cleveland peeps. Since it was one of the last places to get supplies, you had riots in the streets, and zack had an all-you-can-eat buffet. That's when I had to ditch my baby...

**_Excuse me, baby?_**

**[She gives me a glare.] **What, ya thought I meant a kid or somethin'? I meant my Softail! Me 'n her had a lotta good miles together, but I just couldn't risk it. In 'tween people lookin' for a fast ride outta town, and zack numbers, I knew I needed somethin' bigger.

So I got off, and laid her down on her side real gentle, then I knifed the tires. If I couldn't ride 'er, nobody else was goin' to neither. After that, I went to town on zack with the short sword I had strapped to my saddlebags.

**_I thought you were avoiding the zombies?_**

I was when they were just wandering 'round. These ones were attacking people, I wasn't gonna just stand by while _that's_ happening. I was doin' half-head decaps, right around here, **[She places the side of her palm against the bridge of her nose horizontally.] **so's the heads wouldn't be still alive on the ground.

Kept doing shit like that all the way to Framingham, Massachusetts. I'd take the back-roads, but if I saw people that needed a hand, I tried to help. Usually, it was just takin' care of zack, or moving abandoned cars out the way so's people could get their rides through.

Most of the time, it worked alright. People would be holding out in their house, and I'd take out a group of zacks tryin' to get in. They'd be grateful, give me some food and a place to crash for the night.

Even with all the shit that was going down around the world, people were comin' together. It was kinda nice, ya know? After all that time slayin' in the dark, it was cool to have people really show appreciation for what ya were trying ta do.

Wasn't always like that, though. Even when it was us versus zack, there were still motherfuckers out there that just wanted to take advantage o' the situation. Robbin' anybody they came across, and generally doin' whatever they could to make people's lives worse than they already were.

**_Does anything in particular come to mind?_**

Yeah. I was somewhere in Seneca County, New York when I came across this fucking mess. Heard a woman screaming, so I got out of the little compact I'd been using and found her. She was just standin' there yelling, zack wasn't even anywhere in sight.

She was all busted up, bruises all over her face an' shit. Before I could ask what was wrong, somethin' cracks me across the back of the head. Let me tell ya, I got _pissed_.

I turn around to find this jerk-off standin' there with a piece a pipe, lookin' all bug-eyed wondering why I didn't go down when he hit me. Turns out, he'd promised this girl he'd get her to Canada. 'Stead, he beats the crap outta her, rapes her, not to mention some other really sick shit too...

**_She'd somehow managed to escape?_**

Nah, that was the real twisted part. He told her that if she didn't help him find a new playmate, he was gonna feed her to zack. That point, she was so scared outta her mind...I didn't blame her for helpin' to lay a trap.

**_You blamed him for-_**

Fuckin' right I did. I snatched that pipe right outta his hands and kicked the crap outta him. While he was moanin' and beggin' for his life, I looked back at the woman – 'n she was just standing there, staring.

With him not goin' anywhere, I sat her down, gave her some food 'n water. That's when she told me what all he'd done to her. By the time I'd got the story outta her, zack had shown up, so I broke that bastard's legs and left him there.

**_Do you know what happened to him?_**

No. But I hope they started at his legs and worked their way up..._prick_. I usually just beat the shit outta guys like that. But considering all the crap he did to that lady, I had no sympathy for his dumb ass.

Me 'n Nancy, that was her name, took off in my car. Couple of hours later, we ran into a group of survivors from Georgia, trying to hit Canada. Couple of 'em were former sheriff's deputies, so I left 'er with them.

**_Why didn't you take her with you?_**

'Cause I was headin' straight into hell, and I knew it. All the small towns I'd been through were trashed 'n zack was starting to take over. I figured Boston was gonna be a helluva lot worse, I wasn't gonna drag her inta _that_...

**_If you thought it was going to be that bad, why did you continue on to that city?_**

Dude, there were days back then I didn't know what the hell I was thinking! At the time, I was just on a mission, and Boston was my goal. I didn't have some big plan in mind or anything, it was just _get there_. I figured once I saw what the situation with my girls was, I'd come up with what to do next.

**_Wasn't it possible they had abandoned the city, much like slayers Sanders-Johnson and Williams had?_**

I didn't know that had happened at the time. Some of the old farts in the Council say they were cowards fer checkin' out like that, but not me. Vi and Rona saw the writing on the wall; those big cities, with millions of people...how the hell were they supposed to even put a fucking _dent_in zack numbers?

It ain't like they ran and hid either, Rona 'n hers fought zack from Chicago all the way ta Canada. Vi cut through 'em from New York City into Pennsylvania. How many people do ya think they saved in the process?

And people fuckin' forget that there were plenty of slayers that stayed too. Look at Mitsuko in Japan, Janessa in Australia, or Mireille in France. All those girls led slayer teams that kept safe zones in major cities or the surrounding areas.

But Mika **[Slayer Tamika Lawson 1986-2008] **'n her girls waited too long to get out. That's why she took on those three hundred zacks. Bein' head slayer, it was her call to stay, so it was her job to get her people out when things went to shit. She knew the cost, but that was one she was willin' ta pay.

**_I was under the impression that the watchers were in charge?_**

Used to be, they had the final say in everything. I remember how before the war, those creeps had this sick 'test' they used to put the slayer through, if she ever managed to live long enough to hit eighteen. But after most of 'em got blown up by the First's minion Caleb, things changed.

With Giles runnin' the show, we made things equal; head slayer and head watcher of the school were in charge. Watchers ran the research 'n magic side of things, slayers handle the tactical stuff.

**_And if there was a disagreement about one, or the other?_**

Then it goes higher up the ladder, far as it needs to till things got settled. Hey, I'm not sayin' there weren't problems sometimes, people couldn't get along either 'cause the watcher was one of the old fucks who thought he or she could still treat us slayers like robots or whatever. Or 'cause the slayer kept tryin' to hit on the watcher, 'n wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. But mostly it worked okay.

**_What about the case of whether or not to leave a city?_**

Far as I'm concerned, that's strictly a judgment call by whoever's in charge on site. Big cities around the world turned into fucking slaughterhouses almost overnight. Every slayer on the planet, pre-war, couldn't take on millions of zacks 'n win, no matter what Andrew wrote in that stupid fucking book of his - it just wasn't possible.

Shit, look at what happened in Yonkers, the Army's big stand... They had tanks, missiles and helicopters... and they got their asses chewed up, on account of the higher ups couldn't figure out what kinda enemy they were dealing with until it was too fucking late.

And we didn't have any of that stuff, we had swords, axes and crossbows. None of those girls stood a chance against those kinds o' numbers, and anyone who says different is a friggin' moron.

**_When did you realize you weren't going to make it into Boston?_**

Framingham, 'bout twenty miles outside the city limits. **[She shakes her head sadly.]**That's when I ran into a bunch of National Guard guys from the 182nd. They were trying to evacuate this nursing home, load the old folks into these huge-ass six wheelers and head north.

I remember, zack was coming in from all over for that one. They were head-shoting pretty good, but all the goddamn noise was just drawin' more of 'em in. Nothing they coulda done 'bout that, though, no such thing as Meg's yet...

Wasn't like a horde of 'em or nothing, ya know, just a steady stream - one after the other. I bowled over a few of 'em in my pickup, just tryin' to buy some time for those guys to get the job done. The guy in charge, Staff Sergeant Buckley, he was real appreciative of my efforts.

Goddamn, but I'll never forget how he managed to keep it together with the guys in his unit. You could see how a lot of the younger ones, just outta basic training, were ready to piss themselves 'n run for it. But Buckley kept 'em focused, man had balls of fucking steel.

I jumped outta the cab with a sword in one hand, 'n a hatchet in the other. I was doing zack two atta time, and yelled at the Sarge to deal with the old geezers. Once he saw what I could do, he obliged.

**_Did the soldiers question you regarding your abilities?_**

Nah, not with everything goin' down. When they saw me tearin' zack apart like I was doing, what were they gonna do, ask if I was high on PCP or somethin'? Long as I wasn't bit, they were just glad ta be able to speed things up.

Was working pretty good there for a bit, then a couple o' soldiers came runnin' out, one was clutching his bleeding right arm. You can guess how _that_went...

**_The nursing home was already infected?_**

Not when Buckley started. But the place had a small hospital on the other side of the building, and they were takin' in injured people. Someone that came in musta been infected and croaked real sudden. There'd been shooting back there, but that wasn't a surprise. That shit happened a lot, ya know?

Anyways...this kid, total baby face, couldn't have been more than nineteen or twenty. He's on his knees in front of the squad cryin', knowin' he's in deep shit. Hell, everybody musta known. Nobody knew that cutting off a bit arm or a leg could stop the infection at the time.

So he's looking up at the Sarge, beggin' him ta do something to help, _anything_. Now I hadn't known the man long, we'd only met like twenty minutes ago, but the look on his face said it all. That's when he did it.

**_What did Sergeant Buckley do?_**

Told the kid to close his eyes, the medic would be over to fix him up. Baby face obviously didn't believe it, but he does what he's told anyway. Soon as he does, Buckley puts a fucking bullet in his head.

**_What was the general reaction to that?_**

Didn't have time to find out. Right after the body hit the sidewalk, zack came bustin' through the doors that the kid and the other soldier had come out of. Whole shit-load of 'em too. Sarge instantly yelled for everyone to get their asses in gear, he loaded up his boys and took off with the geezers they were able to save.

**_Did the Staff Sergeant ask you to come with them?_**

Nah, he just gave me a quick salute and ran for it. We had each other figured out right from the start - he was gonna do everything he could to make sure those oldsters survived, and I was gonna be on my way as soon as we saved all the people we could.

So I took off too. Drove till I got outta that hellhole, and then I just sat there in the middle of nowhere for a while. The reason I didn't keep goin' to Boston was simple; I was a fucking coward. I can make up all the bullshit excuses in the world, but that's the truth.

**_But you had just saved-_**

Wasn't zack I was afraid of, never was. But seein' Buckley havin' ta shoot one of his own men like that? That scared the shit outta me, worse than zack ever could. All I could think of was seein' one of my girls looking at me like that. Begging me to do somethin' ta help, and knowing there wasn't a fucking thing I could do but kill her like Buckley did with his guy.

**[She shifts uncomfortably in her seat.]**

That's when I decided to head south. I told myself my girls were all either dead, evac'ed or infected. And yeah, the survivors had already left town by the time I hit Massachusetts, so it woulda been pointless to go into Boston lookin' for 'em - but I didn't know that at the time.

That still fucks with me at nights, ya see. Sure I did what I had to, to survive - but what kinda example is that for the younger slayers? Cut 'n run, if you're lucky things'll work out...

**|0|0|**

**END PART 1**


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